ASTRA SOS Hotline started its operation in 2002. Since then, almost ten thousand calls have been received. So far it has served as the only SOS hotline intended for (potential) victims of trafficking in persons in the Republic of Serbia; at the time of its setting up it was one of the rare services of the kind in South-East Europe.

During the first eight years of work a methodology has been developed, results achieved, some of the dilemmas have not yet been solved and the new ones have ap- peared. We would like to share our experiences with the expert public. We also nour- ish hope that our long-term experience in this field, although we are pretty much self-taught, will be useful for those who are planning to establish a similar hotline. We believe that this Manual will also help the ones who have organized other types of SOS telephones (for fighting family violence, violence against children, etc.), because trafficking in human beings may be a consequence of some other form of violence or may be hidden behind it. Although the Manual is intended for individuals who already have some experience in the anti-trafficking field, we nevertheless start with a brief definition and description of the problem for the sake of those who might be faced with this form of severe human rights violation for the first time.